A Humanist’s Tale

If you see 28 Days Later, be sure to stick around after the credits to watch the film’s alternative ending. It’s much more in keeping with the movie’s dark and pessimistic take on humanity.

The premise:

A virus that locks those infected into a permanent state of killing rage is accidentally released from a British research facility. Carried by animals and humans, the virus is impossible to contain, and spreads across the entire planet. Twenty-eight days later, a small group of survivors are trapped in London, caught in a desperate struggle to protect themselves from the infected. As they attempt to salvage a future from the apocalypse, they find that their most deadly enemy is not the virus, but other survivors.

Think of this film as “Night of the Living Dead meets The Standmeets Lord of the Flies.” It’s more creepy than scary, but that’s just as well since, unlike today’s Hollywood horror screamers, this film is actually meant to convey a message.

That message has to do with the callous and inhumane nature in which humans treat each other. Indeed, the real menace in the movie turns out to be mankind’s own infectious depravity — a depravity that, in the end, is not all that different from the scourge of subhuman zombie rage.